The Digital Bits and History, Legacy & Showmanship are pleased to present this retrospective article commemorating the 30th anniversary of the release of Top Gun, the popular military action-drama starring Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, and Anthony Edwards.

Top Gun, directed by Tony Scott (The Hunger, Crimson Tide) and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer (Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop), opened 30 years ago this week.

To mark the occasion, The Bits features a compilation of box-office data that places the movie’s performance in context, passages from vintage film reviews, a list of the 70-millimeter “showcase” presentations, and, finally, an interview segment with documentarian and Tony Scott associate, Charles de Lauzirika. [Read on here...]

A SAMPLING OF MOVIE REVIEWER QUOTES

“No doubt about it: Top Gun is going to be the hit that The Right Stuff should have been. They are not in the same class of films, but this much must be said: The aerial sequences in Top Gun are as thrilling—while remaining coherent—as any ever put on film.” — Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune

“A lot of people are going to want to fly Navy jets by the end of the summer, because Top Gun may be the best military recruiting film ever made.” — Donald Porter, Ogden Standard-Examiner

“Top Gun is a male bonding adventure movie that’s both exciting and disturbing, mind-boggling and vacuous…. Measuring the movie against its model—Hawks’ air films—you can see the difference between a great director making his movies breathe, and a superproduction that depends on action and hardware. Top Gun is an empty-headed technological marvel. The actors—especially Anthony Edwards, Val Kilmer and Meg Ryan—are good, but only connect as archetypes. The emotion heats up only when the planes are flying. (If Howard Hughes were alive, he might watch Top Gun more times than Ice Station Zebra.)” — Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times

“Top Gun is a visual stunner. I think its chief entertainment value lies in protracted photographic excitement—simply the best aerial photography seen in the jet age…. To get the full aerial photo effects of Top Gun, you ought to catch it at a theater where it’s playing in 70mm with full-crank sound. That way you’ll feel like you’re inside a 100-watt stereo set that is inside a video game that is on a roller coaster.” — Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle

“There hasn’t been such a star-making role for a male performer since John Travolta primped, posed and pranced his way to the top in Saturday Night Fever. Cruise, who has played adolescents until now, is given the full treatment in Top Gun. The camera caresses him, in beaming close-ups of his face and body, and he responds to its overtures with the kind of charismatic narcissism that only a male sex symbol can muster.” — George Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Paramount’s Top Gun is precisely the kind of slick, commercial, well-crafted, general-audience blockbuster the other major studios have been looking for all year, and it will probably still be filling Paramount’s coffers by year’s end. The movie makes everyone in it look good, but it’s particularly a triumph for its director, Tony Scott, who was undeservedly trashed by most critics for his stylish first film, The Hunger.” — John Hartl, The Seattle Times

“The dogfights are absolutely the best since Clint Eastwood’s electrifying aerial scenes in Firefox. But look out for the scenes where the people talk to one another.” — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

“[Top Gun] resembles a sparkling, shining replica of a 1940s John Wayne Flying Seabees-FlyingTigers-FlyingLeathernecks movie, updated to the mid-1980s. Judging from the audience reaction to several sneak previews of the film, Top Gun may be exactly what audiences want. Whatever that says about today’s audiences, it augurs well for the picture’s financial fate.” — Philip Wuntch, The Dallas Morning News

“Top Gun is a summer film in the expected form, a wild visceral ride—especially in 70mm. This is as old-fashioned as they come, a John Wayne military shoot-’em-up in the sky, with aerial dogfights [that] are genuinely thrilling. On the ground, however, Top Gun misfires. Or crash-lands. The problem is an unconvincing romance and an overly contrived plotline, apparently aiming for the audience that made An Officer and a Gentleman a hit.” — Christopher Hicks, (Salt Lake City) Deseret News

“This movie seems determined to break the sound barrier; if it isn’t the roar of the jets, it’s the roar of Maverick’s motorcycle, and when that subsides, there’s always the clamor of the music.” — Walter Goodman, The New York Times

“Top Gun is top drawer, top dog, tops!” — Joel Siegel, ABC-TV

“If you’ve ever fantasized about flying at twice the speed of sound, tumbling through clouds and banking against the stratosphere, then Top Gun is the daredevil film for you. Or if you simply like good cinema—enhanced by wide-film technology, superior sound recording and plane-mounted camerawork—Top Gun is the solid drama you crave.” — Shirley Jinkins, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“Top Gun has Rambo’s military core without any of its political effluvia. When Top Gun becomes successful, as presumably it will, we will see that war movies succeed because they are dramatic, not political.” — David Brooks, The Washington Times

“Top Gun is Flashdance in the skies.” — Digby Diehl, CBS-TV

“Not since Duke Wayne took the sands of Iwo Jima has Hollywood produced a more gung-ho invitation to join the military than Top Gun. I saw the film in the company of several hundred teen-age boys who whooped, hollered, cheered and applauded throughout, and then, no doubt, headed straight to the nearest Navy recruitment center to sign up for life.” — Michael Burkett, The (Santa Ana) Orange County Register

THE 70MM ENGAGEMENTS

The following is a list of the first-run 70mm Six-Track Dolby Stereo premium-format presentations of Top Gun in the United States and Canada. These were, arguably, the best theaters in which to experience Top Gun and the only way to faithfully hear the movie’s Oscar-nominated audio mix. Only about ten percent of the film’s print run was in the deluxe, expensive-to-manufacture 70mm format. And of the 200+ movies released during 1986, Top Gun was among only 17 to have 70mm prints produced and had the third-highest number of such prints that year behind Fox’s Aliens and Paramount’s Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

For this release, Paramount employed the services of Lucasfilm’s Theater Alignment Program (TAP) to evaluate and approve the theaters selected to book a 70mm print. As well, the movie was booked into as many THX-certified venues as possible.

The noise-reduction and signal-processing format for the prints was Dolby “A,” and the soundtrack was a split-surround/single-surround combo format. Some of the markets in which the split-surround format (essentially the same as the contemporary 5.1 channel layout) was heard included Los Angeles, New York and Dallas. The aspect ratio was 2.20:1 and was blown up from Super-35 photography.

A 70mm teaser trailer for The Golden Child was sent out with the 70mm Top Gun prints and which the distributor recommended be screened with the presentation.

The listing includes those 70mm engagements that commenced May 16th, 1986. With one Week #2 exception, the listing does not include any of the additional wave, mid-run upgrade, move-over, sub-run, re-release or international engagements, nor does it include any of the movie’s thousands of standard 35mm engagements.

So, which North American theaters screened the 70mm version of Top Gun? Read on…

THE INTERVIEW

Charles de Lauzirika is the producer of Danger Zone: The Making of Top Gun, which originally appeared on the 2004 Special Edition DVD release of Top Gun and subsequently ported over to the Blu-ray Disc releases of the film. Charles is an acclaimed film documentarian and DVD/Blu-ray producer with over 100 credits, including several of Tony Scott’s films (including Man on Fire, Revenge: Director’s Cut and Domino) and such essential home video box sets as Blade Runner, Twin Peaks, Prometheus and the Alien Anthology. His feature directorial debut Crave, starring Ron Perlman, was released in 2013, and won multiple awards at festivals around the world. He recently produced the Star Wars: Launch Bay featurette now playing at both Disneyland in Anaheim and Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, which explores the past, present and future of the Star Wars franchise.

Michael Coate (The Digital Bits): In what way is Top Gun worthy of celebration on its 30th anniversary?

Charles de Lauzirika: I think that 30 years later, Top Gun is still referenced quite a bit in pop culture and even casual conversation, so even though it’s kind of an ’80s artifact, it’s still very relevant. I mean, look at the Resistance attack on Starkiller Base in The Force Awakens. Some of those X-Wing-mounted camera angles are straight out of Top Gun. And that’s kind of a fun full-circle since Top Gun was inspired by Star Wars to a major degree. And let’s not get forget the recurring Danger Zone gags on Archer. Or all the other references, songs, visuals and lines of dialogue that get repeated over and over to this day.

Coate: When did you first see Top Gun and what did you think of it?

Lauzirika: I was living in Barcelona when it was released in 1986, and back then, American movies wouldn’t usually open abroad until several weeks or months later. But I moved back to Los Angeles a couple months into its theatrical run and my friends back home had really been hyping it up like it was the greatest movie ever. They were actually going around in public wearing aviator sunglasses and flight jackets emblazoned with various Top Gun and U.S. Navy patches. So when I finally saw it at the Mann National in Westwood, expectations were impossibly high. And I have to admit, after it was over, I was kind of disappointed initially. I mean, it was fun and really well-made. Beautifully shot with some truly exceptional aerial work. But it was also kind of goofy, cheesy and fluffy, which I wasn’t expecting. Eventually, I grew to enjoy it more and more over the years and now just accept it as a straight-up fun, energetic ’80s flick.

Coate: Top Gun is among a fairly small group of movies in its success range to not have any sequels. Do you think there should be a sequel (remake, reboot, etc.)?

Lauzirika: I know there’s been quite a bit of work put into a sequel over the years. It could be very interesting, since aerial combat has changed over the last three decades, and today so much of the war on terror is waged by predator drones. So I think the current state of the world and the cutting edge technology in play would provide for some interesting new twists in the Top Gun formula. Ultimately, what’s most important is that they find a compelling story for the characters to be challenged by. I’m not sure how an older Maverick would adapt to the mentor role that Tom Skerritt’s Viper played in the first film. I just don’t see Maverick ever being that grounded. He’s a lot like Captain Kirk in that way. No matter how old he gets, he still wants to be in control, getting his hands dirty in the heat of battle. But I’d be curious to see how the old characters have evolved over time, and also how they relate to the next generation, who will probably be even more wild, arrogant and irresponsible than they were.

Coate: Top Gun was only director Tony Scott’s second feature film. How risky was it for him to be chosen to direct, and what did having a director with a fresh vision bring to the project compared with how the movie may have turned out if made by say a more experienced journeyman type?

Lauzirika: See, I think picking a director like Tony, coming off a dark, artsy film like The Hunger, shows the kind of vision and bravery that doesn’t really exist in quite the same way anymore. It’s funny because at the time, it seemed like Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer were largely known as A-list hit makers, churning out popcorn blockbusters for the masses. But looking back at their work, I think they actually made some really brilliant artistic decisions in how they cultivated a whole roster of bold visualists like Tony, Michael Bay and others. And these directors were allowed to establish their own unique creative style that flourished even beyond their Simpson and Bruckheimer projects. So picking a filmmaker like Tony for Top Gun might have been a risk, but it was a smart risk. He had a cinematic style and personality all his own, which then influenced a whole other generation of filmmakers. When you watch a Tony Scott film, you damn well know who’s directing it. In the hands of another more journeyman director, I’m not sure Top Gun would be even a fraction as memorable as the film Tony made.

Coate: It’s been just over a decade since the DVD Special Edition and your Danger Zone: The Making of Top Gun documentaries were made. What else would you like to do special edition-wise should another opportunity arise?

Lauzirika: I wish there was a way to resurrect those seemingly forever lost deleted scenes, like the one showing Goose’s funeral, but I’m afraid that will never come to pass. And yet I think the existing Top Gun disc is pretty comprehensive, all things considered. At this point, I think it would be more interesting to do a special edition for Days of Thunder. I’ve heard a lot of very interesting behind-the-scenes stories on that one. And with Tony and Don Simpson no longer with us, I think it would make for a nice tribute to their work.

Coate: Where do you think Top Gun ranks among director Tom Cruise’s body of work?

Lauzirika: I could try to rank it, but it would be futile. Tom Cruise just keeps making some really great, interesting, enjoyable films, so the ranking would always be fluid. I mean, Rogue Nation turned out to be my favorite Mission: Impossible movie, and it was the fifth in the series. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a big movie star so laser-focused and deeply committed to entertaining audiences the way Cruise is. The guy is fearless and even when it might seem like he’s going off the rails, I would never bet against him. I certainly think Top Gun will always be remembered as one of his signature films.

Coate: Where do you think Top Gun ranks among director Tony Scott’s body of work?

Lauzirika:Top Gun put Tony on the map when it comes to blockbuster filmmaking. So it’s obviously an important milestone in his filmography. I think he made far more personal and daring films throughout his career, but Top Gun captures so much of what we, as an audience, know about what “a Tony Scott film” is. It’s stylish and sexy, fast and furious, and it beautifully combines Tony’s artistic sensibilities—like his love of blue-black desert skies, dark smoky rooms, long lenses and painterly grad filters—and fuses them with his one-of-a-kind rock-and-roll sense of insanity and playfulness. Whenever I think back on my meetings with Tony over the years, I remember his easy smile and the mischievous twinkle in his eyes. In that regard, he and his films often like felt one and the same to me.

Coate: What is the legacy of Top Gun?

Lauzirika: I think at its most basic level, Top Gun will always be remembered as an essential ’80s movie that delivered high entertainment and show-stopping spectacle. I think there’s a variety of levels beneath its glossy surface to consider, even ironically. Just listen to Quentin Tarantino talk about it. But, ultimately, I think it’s a fun movie that intends to give you a good time, a few thrills, a few laughs, and send you on your way feeling better than you did beforehand. That’s what good movies do.

Coate: Thank you, Charlie, for participating and sharing your thoughts about Top Gun on the occasion of its 30th anniversary.

SOURCES/REFERENCES

Primary references for this project were promotional material published in hundreds of daily newspapers archived digitally and/or on microfilm plus numerous articles published in film industry trade publications Billboard, Boxoffice, The Hollywood Reporter, and Variety.

SELECTED IMAGES

Copyright 1986 Paramount Pictures Corporation

All figures and data included in this article pertain to the United States and Canada except where stated otherwise.

What began as an idea in the Middle East transformed into a visual story on the big screen. Oblivion took shape inside the mind of director Joe Kosinski, leaped onto the pages of a graphic novel and ended up as a science-fiction movie with Tom Cruise.

THE BIRTH OF OBLIVION

“It came at a time where I was having trouble getting my foot in the door in the commercial music video business,” said Kosinski. Out of frustration, he wrote the story of a man digging into the past, our present, to find his humanity. “I had this idea of what would it be like to be the last man on Earth, to be kind of the one looking back at the world we know,” he said. […]

It was during a trip in the Middle East that Kosinski was inspired to create the story of a man in search of his identity. “I’ve been to Petra and Jordan a few years earlier and it was a really inspiring kind of trip to go on and I thought if you could see our world in the same state that Petra exist today, what would that be like?” he recalled.

Growing up a fan of the classic television series Twilight Zone and films such as Planet of the Apes (1968) and Alien (1979), Kosinski earned an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University and then graduated with a Master’s degree in Architecture from Columbia University. He lent his visual style to several commercials while working on the story of Oblivion.

Kosinski worked on the graphic novel laying down the foundation for the story and the characters populating the futuristic world. At the time, he thought the idea could turn into a good first film. “I thought it would be a small film,” he said, but then Tron Legacy came along, providing him with a great chance to make his first movie. “But while I was on Tron, I kept playing with this idea of Oblivion. The opportunity to bring the story of Jack Harper to life was too good to pass up after completing Tron Legacy,” Kosinski said. “I understand it’s a very unique opportunity to be able to make a movie like this, an original movie in the landscape of big movies… so I feel very lucky to have gotten that opportunity.”

ADAPTING OBLIVION FOR THE BIG SCREEN

What began as a small film developed into a much bigger product when Kosinski expanded the universe of Oblivion. He didn’t anticipate the story becoming so big. “It was always a small character driven story and it always had this small cast of three or four characters but I knew the ideas were big and I wanted the landscape and the world that surround these characters to be large,” he said.

The graphic novel was never published but served as a great source for the screenplay. Kosinski said there are differences between what he put down on paper and what ended up on the screen. There were darker aspects to the story, including the Scavs led by Morgan Freeman’s character, Malcolm Beech, being more desperate. “I played with a couple of different endings way back when I was kind of formulating the story,” he said, “but fundamentally the themes and the story of Jack Harper (as played by Tom Cruise) remained true to the end.”

Kosinski continued to make little changes even after the movie was released. “I got to revisit Oblivion in a way with the Blu-ray which was nice,” he said. The director watched the movie with audiences around the world during promotional trips and made notes of some of the changes he wanted to make for the Blu-ray release. “I see all these little things I wanted to fix and the Blu-ray is an opportunity to do that. Little tweaks to the mix, tweaks to the dialogue track.” These changes and the addition of deleted scenes help make Oblivion an even more complete project for Kosinski after years of working on the story. “But most of all getting to include scenes that didn’t make it into the film for me is exciting, getting to kind of show how we made it,” he said.

Another satisfying experience for Kosinski was getting M83 to do the score for Oblivion. “The score only version of the film to me is really interesting,” he said. Kosinski had composer Joseph Trapanese work with M83’s front man Anthony Gonzalez for the score, just as he did bringing Trapanese to work with Daft Punk on Tron Legacy. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” he said. “I wanted to do on Tron. We weren’t able to do it then, but on this one, I got my way. The score only version of the movie is a really interesting way to experience it,” he said.

COSTUMES OF OBLIVION

Costume designer Marlene Stewart used light colors for Harper and darker tones for the Scavs and then added complexity. Kosinski wanted Harper to be in white, the traditional hero color. Stewart ended up creating a grey version to make it look more lived in. The costume also had to be practical given the time Cruise would spend in it.

He was the one primarily using all of this and it had to be comfortable for him, said Deidre Thieman, manager of production archives at NBC Universal. “He’s wearing it through the whole film through all different climates. He’s got cold weather and he’s got really hot weather so it had to be comfortable for him,” she explained.

Darker colors and a complex helmet comprised of four separate sections were utilized for the Scavs. It took 30 minutes for the actors to put on the Scavs’ costumes. “They’re quite a gear to put on,” said Thieman.

DESIGNING THE BUBBLE SHIP

Kosinski designed the insect-looking helicopter type of spaceship known as the bubble ship. Designer Daniel Simon was brought on board to refine the concept and make it practical for the movie to be shot. Simon was a car designer who worked at Bugatti Automobiles and Volkswagen and a concept designer, as seen in his first book, Cosmic Motors, which features photorealistic fantasy vehicles. He worked with Kosinski as a vehicle concept designer on Tron Legacy and on Captain America: The First Avenger and Prometheus.

(photo by Mario Boucher)

Simon began working on Oblivion in 2009 drawing initial ideas based on Kosinski’s concept. He spent at least a year, full-time, working on the bubble ship. One of his biggest challenges was building a cockpit that has to rotate in a perfect sphere and keep two occupants comfortable. “As a designer, you always look for this as the whole thing and if you have one favorite part that normally means that the whole thing is not so good,” he said.

Simon wasn’t too fond of the seatbelts “because I would think in the future you’d have something better than that.” But the seatbelts had to be practical and there’s not much you can do design-wise, he said.

TOM CRUISE’S CUSTOM MADE SEAT

“This is a very rare job in the film design business that the vehicle plays such a big part in it and you see it all the time with the actor in it,” said Simon. Once it became obvious that Tom Cruise would have to spend many hours sitting in the bubble ship seat, it had to be custom made for the actor. “The seat has to be so comfortable that he can be in it eight hours and doesn’t get back pain especially for the next day.”

“So we had him come in a few times and prototype three or four seats for him and each time we would find something else that would be bothering because he needs to act in it,” said Simon. For example, pushing the throttle down would do something to the shoulder clearance. “You cannot just put a pillow behind his back because he would run out of the ship on camera,” he said. There were all these little details not only to make the seat work for Cruise but also manufacturing constraints.

ELVIS, THE BOBBLEHEAD

Director Kosinski decided that Jack Harper needed something to connect the character with the past, our current times, after the devastation of Earth. In the story, Harper collects things that remind him of humanity. Kosinski told Simon the idea of a bobblehead would have to be part of the cockpit and at a specific spot. “The cockpit was done and it looked all fine and we all liked it and then the script changed,” said Simon. Now, Harper would drive around with this Elvis bobblehead in his cockpit, “but there was no dashboard to put it on,” said Simon. “There was nothing there because we had this modern glass bubble.” Simon redesigned the cockpit and added a dashboard to include the little Elvis on top of it. He added dials to make it look logical for the story but none of it was functional. “The only true reason is that Elvis could be exactly right where the director wanted it for eye level shots,” he said.

It was an unusual but very rewarding experience for Simon. “It’s a boy’s dream (to work Oblivion),” he said. “We all as kids drew something and here’s a big film studio behind it with one of the most famous actors and a very sophisticated director and they all pull on one string and make it happen.” Seeing his drawings and his design modifications become real is already one of the biggest highlight of his career. “I would call it a dream job,” he said. Simon designs his own vehicles and is currently working on a book incorporating his designs with a story.

VISUAL WORK

Oblivion features many visual highlights, including shots of the torch of the Statue of Liberty and the top of the Empire State building in a post-apocalyptic Earth. Perhaps the biggest challenge was the seemingly floating station where Harper and his friend Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) reside high up in the clouds above the Earth’s surface.

Visual effects supervisors Bjorn Mayer and Eric Barba worked with their respected teams to bring Kosinski’s vision to the screen. Mayer’s team at Pixomondo worked on the cloud work since many sequences had the main character flying around the planet. Mayer said their biggest challenge was generating ice on the bubble ship. Barba’s team at Digital Domain found the end sequence inside the massive space station the most difficult test. “It was a challenge to make it work on screen,” said Barba.

The 804 VFX shots for the movie were almost evenly split between the two FX companies. Filmed on location in Iceland, Hawaii and Louisiana, 85% of Oblivion was shot live and 15% being all-CG shots. Going on location scouting for the movie was very helpful to Mayer and Barba because they could take pictures and draw concepts, which makes a huge difference later on, said Mayer. “You need to be there,” added Barba.

Digital Domain was responsible for Tom Cruise fighting himself. Working with Kosinski, director of photography Claudio Miranda, the stunt team and Cruise, Barba and his team helped choreograph the shots when the actor is fighting a clone of himself. When some of the shots didn’t match, Digital Domain replaced Cruise’s face with a fully CG version by capturing a 3D scan of the actor’s head on a light stage.

BLU-RAY FEATURES

In fact, the Jack vs. Jack sequence is part of the behind the scenes featured on the Blu-ray. Cruise and Kosinski provide a commentary for the film and several deleted scenes are added to the package. Promise of a New World: The Making of Oblivion is a comprehensive five-part documentary: Destiny looks into the development and planning of the movie, Voyage explores the creation of the bubble ship, Combat goes into details about all the stunts, Illusion delves into the post-production work, and Harmony focuses on the score by M83. The score itself is an isolated track you can listen to while watching the movie.

Afternoon, folks! We’ve got a couple good things in store for you today…

First up here at the site this afternoon, our very own Dr. Jahnke has kicked off his new weekly Burnt Offerings column here at The Bits in which he plans to run down the latest MOD/DVD-R release and announcement news, specifically including the list of titles newly added to the Warner Archive each week. Going forward, Jahnke also plans to cover news about all the other different major studio MOD programs as well. He’ll also review a new MOD title each week – this week’s column features a review of Warner Archive’s Sincerely Yours on DVD-R. And as always, you can always contact Adam with comments, thoughts, encouragement and input here. We hope you enjoy it!

Also today, Russell Hammond has posted the weekly update of the Release Dates & Artwork section, featuring all the latest Blu-ray, DVD and Video Game cover art and Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, a portion of absolutely anything you order from Amazon in the same session after clicking through to them from our links goes to help support our work here at The Bits and we greatly appreciate it!

Now then… there’s a trio of fairly significant title announcements to report on today…

Warner Home Video has set Brian Helgeland’s Jackie Robinson film 42 for Blu-ray Combo and DVD release on 7/16 (SRP $35.99 and $28.98). Extras on the Blu-ray will include 3 behind-the-scenes featurettes (Stepping into History, Full-Contact Baseball and The Legacy of the Number 42). The film stars Chadwick Boseman (as Jackie Robinson) and Harrison Ford (as Brooklyn Dodgers GM Branch Rickey). Both give terrific performances. Whether you’re a baseball fan or not, 42 is a darned good film. I highly recommend checking it out.

Also today, Universal has set the Tom Cruise sci-fi film Oblivion for Blu-ray Combo and DVD release on 8/6. The film was directed by Joseph Kosinski (of TRON: Legacy fame). I’ll say this at least: It’s one of the most gorgeous looking sci-fi films I’ve seen in a while. Extras on the Blu-ray will include audio commentary with Tom Cruise and Kosinski, deleted scenes, the 5-part Promise of a New World: The Making of Oblivion documentary (includes Destiny, Voyage, Combat, Illusion and Harmony) and – this is a nice touch – the complete M83 score for the film on an isolated track. You’ll find the cover artwork below.